You define success... no one else does.

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I have a 200 kilometer bike ride to support conquering cancer* in eight weeks; now a part of every weekend is dedicated to training. I was out today with a couple of good friends... enjoying the day and getting some kilometers under "my belt". As we were coming to the end of our ride, three riders passed us at a much faster pace and were way ahead of us before we knew it. I heard one of my friends say, "I should be in much better shape and be as fast as they are" - To that I said, "Just think of all those people who are not even out here".

For my buddy, success was going faster and for me success was being out on the road. We both have a goal to finish the BIG RIDE, but our definitions of training success are different. Is one person's definition of success better than the other? Of course not, as in this case, we will both finish the BIG RIDE. Success is different for all of us, with no one definition of success being better than the other. And only you can decide how success is defined for you.

Some people may say to me, "you should be training to ride faster", and that is fair. But here is the thing, there will be other people who would agree with my definition, and yet others, will have other definitions of successful training. And this is the trap when it comes to discussions of success; there can be a wide range of success definitions, criteria or opinion.  And who is to say what the "success hierarchy" is...

  • Is success defined by wealth?
  • Is success defined by the number of friends you have?
  • Is success defined by the loving family you have?
  • Is success defined by fame?
  • Is success defined by health and longevity?
  • et cetera

Which of these are more important? Are any of them? Who truly can say?

In the end, success has to be measured relative to a goal - And that goal should be yours. So again, the definition of your success has to be all about YOU and not defined by someone else. I appreciate that a person's definition of success may be aligned with someone else's definition of success and probably very contextual... such as being a sales representative and having success defined as reaching a sales target. Hopefully this is aligned with a personal goal and if not, success will most likely be hard to find.

So if you want success - set YOURSELF goals and then achieve them.

gpe

* Ride to Conquer Cancer  www.conquercancer.ca